The project we are going to create is a slight variation upon a simple picture in picture effect. I originally created this effect in June 2005 before Media Studio 8 was released and at that time used Video Studio 9. The original Video for which I created this effect was following a Holiday in California where I visited the Grand Canyon. My wife and I took a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon; obviously I was filming the canyon from the helicopter. On a few occasions I turned the camcorder onto my wife who was sitting opposite me in the helicopter.

I created a nice effect where during the video I would bring in a circular picture in picture of my wife so that my audience could see her reaction to the flight. The circular PIP had a clock effect transition at the start and end points.

I shall demonstrate how to create this effect using Video Studio 9 and also Media Studio 8.
The procedure for each product is different.
Video Studio 9 has a similar built in option under the Mask and Chroma Key functions where you can select Mask Frame.
The difference between this method and the built in one is two fold.
1.I have not found a way to add new images to that library, though you could alter the existing ones located at
C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead VideoStudio 9.0\Samples\Image
Should you wish to alter these images or replace them with your own (by using one of the existing filenames) the way these work are that black areas are transparent. White areas show the overlaid picture, Grey areas show a mixture of both which varies according to the shade of grey.
2.No transition effects. The overlay image would just spring in and spring out again

Here is a still showing the effect:

Creating the mask with Photo Impact 11.

Firstly we are going to create a circular mask to add to our composition. Don¡¦t worry if you do not have PhotoImpact 11. You can download a copy of the mask here: http://www.steve-jones.pwp.blueyonder.c ... lemask.pngBecause this is a tutorial I shall now guide you through the steps to enable you to create this mask using PhotoImpact 11. From this you will then be able to create other masks, which can be used, in your video productions.

The picture on your PhotoImpact screen will appear to be unchanged, don¡¦t worry, that is not the one you saved.
You can now close PhotoImpact and there is no need to save the picture that you have just created.

It does not matter if you select AVI or MPEG settings but choose 4.3 format so that the circle we produce further in this tutorial will be the correct shape.

Media Studio 8. (Video Studio 9 users please see further below)

I am going to use simple solid colour blocks in this tutorial so that you can save this as a project file which can later be re-used in much the same way as a smart composition.
Let’s begin. Open Video Editor and start a new project.
The composition should not be built on the Main timeline otherwise you will not get the circular transition to work correctly. Right click on the main timeline tab and select Create New Timeline.

This creates a new timeline named Timeline1.

Right click on Timeline1 and select Rename Timeline

We will call this Main Video. The purpose of renaming the timeline is so that it will help you to remember what each nested timeline contains.

When you have several nested timelines you can see above the preview screen the name of the timeline you currently have selected

Now repeat this process and create a third timeline and rename it to PIP. This third timeline will contain our picture in picture.

We would like to make the whole composition last for 20 seconds. Click the Main Video tab so that this timeline is selected.
Now choose from the menu bar Insert, Color Clip.

You will see in the picture below that I have selected 3 areas. The Duration has been set to 20.
The Color has been changed to red and that I have selected Pure Color?

Now add this to the start of the timeline on track Video1. This has created a 20 second placeholder, which the end user will later replace with a video.
In the case of my Grand Canyon video this was the view of the canyon from the helicopter.

Now click the PIP tab and create a grey colour block 3 seconds long and place it at the start of track video1

Place another identical 3-second long grey colour block on track video1 so that it ends at the 20 second mark.
Now create a light grey colour block

16 seconds long and place it onto video2 so that it starts 2 seconds in as shown below

Drag the top colour block straight down onto video1 and this will create a 1 second transition at either end.
Now select the Transition Effects, clock and then Twist-Clock. Drag that transition over the two transition points as shown below

If you play this timeline you should see the clock transition as depicted in the above preview screen.

In Video Editor select the PIP Timeline and select the Insert Image button. Go to your newly created PNG picture
And then insert it onto track Video2 above the first transition. Drag the right hand edge of the PNG picture so that it finishes at the end of the second transition.
See the picture below.

Test the timeline by playing it and you should now see the following wheel effect at the transition points

Now right click the PIP tab and select Add to timeline, choose Main Video
Drop the video onto Video2 above the red colour block.
Next step is to drop a picture in picture moving path from the production library onto the clip on video2.

Now right click video 2 and select overlay options

In the Type drop down box select Color Key.
Move your mouse over the Overlay clip and an eyedropper appears
Left click and the grey box you see in the Overlay Preview should now disappear.

Click OK and then play the timeline and you should see the following as the circle appears/disappears

The Final Step is to right click the Main Video Timeline tab and select Add to Timeline, Main Timeline.

You can now save this as a DVP file. If you followed my steps correctly your file will be a mere 89.5KB.

To use this in your future productions, open this DVP file.
Go to the PIP tab and right click the light grey colour block

And then select a replacement video or image file (photograph)
Then go to the Main Video tab and do the same for the red colour block

Render the video and import into your current project.

Video Studio 9

The procedure in VideoStudio 9 is different, as we do not have multiple timelines.
Our work round here is to create the overlay first and then render for a second time.

Also you cannot replace video or photographs like Media Studio and so I shall use the sample videos to demonstrate the procedure.

Firstly open the VideoStudio Editor.
Drag two grey colour clips to the timeline
At the top left of the screen make sure each clip is 3 seconds in duration.
When you click a colour clip it will display a Color Picker box below the duration
Click the Color picker to bring up another dialog box, Select Ulead Color Picker.

In the next dialog box that appears type 128 into the values for Red, Green and Blue.
This is to make sure that it has the same shade of grey as the overlay mask we created (or downloaded) earlier.

Repeat this process for the other colour clip.

Now drag a sample video between the two clips
Here I have chosen Sampl-V04.mpg, which is slightly over 7 seconds long.

Select the clock transitions

Drag the twist clock between the clips with a 1 second duration for each transition.

Switch to Timeline view. Right click on the video track to bring up a dialog box and select Insert Image? Navigate to where you have saved the mask circlemask.png

Stretch the overlay mask so that it reaches the ends of the two clock transitions.

Right click the overlay on the preview screen and a dialog box appears.
Select Fit To screen

You can now play this to make sure it works correctly.

We now have to render this to create a video file, which will be used as the overlay in the next step. Select the share Tab, Create Video file | same as project settings.

Give the file a name such as overlay.mpg or overlay.avi dependant upon the source of your video files and render the file. Once finished a thumbnail copy will appear in your video library
Now start a new project

What I am going to do here is use the same sample clip twice to make sure my sample clip is longer than our overlay clip we have just created. Drag two copies of a sample clip to the timeline, then click the second one and tick the reverse video box.
Play this back and watch what happens!

This is a neat little trick you can use when you have a small video clip that you want to stretch out and don’t want to use the slow motion function. Obviously its use depends on what’s in the picture otherwise people or cars might be seen to suddenly travel backwards!

Switch to Timeline view and now drag our new clip from the library onto the overlay track. Reposition it to one of the corners of the TV safe area.
Now click the Mask & Chroma Key button.

Move the play head so that it is over one of the transition areas.
Place a check mark inside the apply overlay options box.
Make sure Chroma Key is selected in the drop down box.
Adjust the transparency level to about 10%. You may need slightly more or less depending upon the actual videos involved.

Now preview your video and if happy with your results the task is complete.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas. Presenting a step by step instructions on how to create a circular PIP with clock transition is pretty much easier. Capturing every moment in life with cam and video is memorable and worth the time and effort:P .